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01/13/2019, 06:17 PM | #1 |
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MalFormed Tiny Starfish on New Clam
Found this guy crawling around the mantel of my new clam
Are these starfish a clam predator? It is tan and white and not symmetrical as far as i can tell
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01/13/2019, 08:34 PM | #2 |
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It's an asterina star.
It's asymmetrical because it's lost limbs to reproduce or something picked them off. Some of them (the grey ones, I believe) are known to eat corals but I've never seen the ones in my tank eating any. I'm not sure long term how they do with clams but if it makes you feel any better I had one crawling around on my derasa for a couple of days last week with no visible ill effects.
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01/14/2019, 09:28 PM | #3 |
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They're rather nice if you don't have anything they eat. Yes, they nosh coraline, but in most mature tanks that's a recommendation, not a problem.
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Sk8r Salinity 1.024-6; alkalinity 8.3-9.3 on KH scale; calcium 420; magnesium 1300, temp 78-80, nitrate .2. Ammonia 0. No filters: lps tank. Alk and cal won't rise if mg is low. Current Tank Info: 105g AquaVim wedge, yellow tang, sailfin blenny,royal gramma, ocellaris clown pair, yellow watchman, 100 microceriths, 25 tiny hermits, a 4" conch, 1" nassarius, recovering from 2 year hiatus with daily water change of 10%. |
01/17/2019, 09:32 AM | #4 |
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Thanks guys - I thought so but just wanted to check given the malformed body.
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"In a free government the security for civil rights must be the same as that for religious rights." -James Madison Current Tank Info: 120 Visio // Radions // Eschopps Skimmer // MP40 x2 // Tunze ATO // BRS Dosing Pumps and Dual Reactor // Apex Gold // |
01/17/2019, 07:49 PM | #5 |
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I have had tanks for 16 years and have had hundreds of them over the years. So far I haven’t had a coral get eaten by any. There is apparently a species that will, but I have never seen it. As for coraline, my three urchins pretty much take care of that so I can’t really say how many it would take before they could decimate the coraline population in a healthy reef.
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